Christy Clark has busy final day of B.C. election campaign

Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun05.13.2013

B.C Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark gets off a campaign flight at Victoria International Airport in Sidney, B.C., for campaign stops on Vancouver Island on Monday May 13, 2013. British Columbians go to the polls Tuesday for a provincial election.Darryl Dyck
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

B.C. Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark walks past a dump truck during a campaign stop at local candidate Sukhminder Virk's campaign office in Surrey on Monday May 13, 2013. British Columbians go to the polls Tuesday for a provincial election.Darryl Dyck
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

B.C. Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark arrives for a campaign stop at local candidate Sukhminder Virk's campaign office in Surrey on Monday May 13, 2013. British Columbians go to the polls Tuesday for a provincial election.Darryl Dyck
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

BC Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark smiles during a campaign stop at Port Metro Vancouver, on Friday May 10, 2013. British Columbians go to the polls for a provincial election Tuesday.DARRYL DYCK
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark, shown during a campaign stop at Port Metro Vancouver on Friday, says the province’s legislated targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are on the table as part of negotiations to develop a liquefied natural gas industry.DARRYL DYCK
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

B.C. Premier and Liberal Leader Christy Clark greets nuns during a campaign stop at the Mother's Day picnic at the Croatian Pastoral Centre in Richmond, B.C., on Sunday May 12, 2013. British Columbians go to the polls for a provincial election Tuesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

BC Liberal leader Christy Clark waves after addressing a gathering during a campaign stop in Campbell River, B.C. Saturday, May 11, 2013. British Columbians will go to the polls May 14th.JONATHAN HAYWARD
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

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There's an old movie from 1969 called If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium about a whirlwind 18-day tour a bunch of tourists make to nine European countries.

It has become synonymous with fast stops, superficial tours and a cover-your-bases style of travel.

It's also the way BC Liberal Leader Christy Clark and NDP Leader Adrian Dix mounted the last day of their election campaigns Monday. For Dix, it's a gruelling 24 hours hitting 14 ridings around the province, ending in his own riding of Vancouver-Kingsway just as polls open Tuesday morning.

For Clark, it's faster-paced over a shorter distance: 10 stops in Metro Vancouver and south Vancouver Island by the time her son Hamish should be in bed Monday night.

She spent the first half of the day bouncing through coffee shops and yogurt take-outs in Surrey, Delta and Saanich, gabbing with mostly staged groups of Liberal volunteers.

Nowhere did she make campaign-style speeches, and her visits were mostly timed for maximum effect of the media entourage that travelled with her.

This campaign day, however, varied in one distinctive way from the other 27: this was the only day in which Clark allowed her 11-year-old son Hamish to accompany her. She said she's kept him removed from the gruelling campaign as much as possible. But one recent night, when she woke him to say goodnight after a particularly tough day in the Okanagan, he asked her why she went to all those places.

"So I decided he should see what I do," she said.

Hamish, accompanied by a friend and a basketball, lightened a tough day for volunteers with his antics. While his mother glad-handed, he bounced his ball and cracked jokes. At one point on the flight back from Victoria to Vancouver he started singing Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier and all the passengers in the front half joined in.

Still, this was an important day for Clark, who tried to hit as many of the ridings in which there are close races.

On a day after weekend polls show the premier's party had significantly closed the gap and is within six points of the New Democrats, Clark wanted to hit ridings in Surrey, Delta, Saanich and Vancouver to pump up volunteers and press a last few palms.

Clark began her tour in the riding of Surrey-Newton, where Liberal challenger Sukminder Virk is trying to unseat Harry Bains. There, surrounded by other Liberal candidates from ridings south of the Fraser River, she reminded supporters that NDP leader Adrian Dix didn't hold the same free enterprise values as they did.

Clark then headed to a coffee shop in Delta North where Scott Hamilton is in a tight race with the NDP's Sylvia Bishop.

From there she popped into another coffee shop in Delta South to breath life into former Delta councillor Bruce McDonald's campaign to unseat incumbent independent Vicki Huntington, who won in 2009 in a recount election over former judge Wally Oppal.

And that was all before noon. Then she headed to Vancouver Island, where she met with seniors at the Legion Manor in the riding of Saanich North and the Islands, and young children at a new yogurt shop in Saanich South.

Clark made the briefest stop of the micro-tour in Victoria's Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding, where Ida Chong is in a fight for her life with Green candidate Andrew Weaver, the University of Victoria climate scientist.

Clark acknowledged Chong has a tough fight, but noted that the riding has never been won by large margins. Still, she said she expected Chong to prevail.

Back in Vancouver Clark after the Bob Marley sing-along, Clark headed to Vancouver-Kensington, where the Liberals hope Gabby Kalaw knocks off incumbent NDP Mabel Elmore.

By the time most people will be heading home for dinner, Clark will be heading for the Burnaby-Deer Lake riding, where she hopes her candidate Dr. Shian Gu will knock off NDP MLA Kathy Corrigan, whose family have long had social democracy in their blood.

Finally, Clark will do a telephone town hall at 7 p.m. and take questions before wrapping up her tour in her own riding of Vancouver-Point Grey.

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